Obituaries

Ellen Frank followed her dreams despite the obstacles in her path. Four years after earning her doctorate and securing a tenured teaching position, she quit teaching in order to paint, despite the misgivings of her parents and her lack of formal training.

Sheila Mary Collum, a longtime East Hampton resident dubbed Gra by her grandson as a toddler, could not have earned a more fitting nickname, according to her children, who later learned that the word “Gra” means “love” in Gaelic. This is exactly what Mrs. Collum embodied throughout her life to all who knew her, her children said.

A memorial service for Bryan Eldridge, a detective who worked for the East Hampton Village Police Department for 19 years, will take place Thursday from 2 to 5 p.m. at East Hampton High School. A formal police officer’s service will begin at 4, and a reception will follow at the East Hampton Fire Department headquarters on Cedar Street. Mr. Eldridge died on Dec. 22.

Richard Bono, who ran Bono’s Small Engine Repair in East Hampton for decades, died at home here on Nov. 27. He was 86 and had been in declining health for the past year.

Barbara Patricola-McNiff, who owned and operated the Devlin-McNiff real estate business in East Hampton with her husband, John, died on Nov. 21 at home here. She was 81.

Ellen Frank, an artist, scholar, writer, and founder of the Ellen Frank Illumination Arts Foundation in Springs, died last Thursday at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. She was 75. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

Laura Stein, a longtime resident of Montauk who had a long and distinguished career as a marketing and advertising executive, author, and fitness expert, died of cancer at home in New York City on Nov. 22. She was 75.

Word has been received of the death of Merrie Barbara Bennett Gay, a lifelong resident of Springs, on July 15 at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue. She was 63 and had been ill with cancer for two years.

Alexander Russo, who bought a house in Springs in 1958, has 84 works documenting World War II in the Navy Art Collection in Washington, D.C. He died on Nov. 28 at the age of 99.

Carol G. Walter, who came to East Hampton with her parents in the late 1940s, died of organ failure on Aug. 11 in Manhattan, The Star has learned. She was 93.

Alex Russo of East Hampton, a painter and poet, died at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital on Nov. 28. He was 99. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

Christopher McErlean of Flanders, known to all as Chris Mac, was an avid fisherman, basketball player, and Golden Gloves-winning boxer who won a lightweight division title 19 years ago. Mr. McErlean, who grew up in Sag Harbor, died suddenly on Nov. 23.

Visiting hours for Bruce J. Hoek of Springs will be held on Monday from 2 to 4 and from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A service is planned for Tuesday morning at 10 at the funeral home, with burial to follow at 11 at Fort Hill Cemetery in Montauk.

Linda Lawry, a well-known wine educator who retired in 2018 as director of the International Wine Center in Manhattan, died of cardiac arrest on Nov. 25. “For me, and for countless other wine professionals in New York City, Linda was the reason they pursued wine as a career," her successor at the center said.

Linda Sue Russell's lifelong goal, her family wrote, was to be happy and raise a family, and that she did. She died at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital on Nov. 13.

Ralph Clinton George, for many years the head of the East Hampton Town Police marine division, volunteer ambulance driver, and town resident for nearly his entire life, died on Nov. 29 in Tewksbury, Mass. The cause was congestive heart failure. He was 92.

Samuel Joffe of Water Mill and New York City came to professional baking later in life but took to it with gusto, enrolling at the age of 65 in the International Pastry Arts Center and eventually opening Georgica Bakers in Amagansett.

Sandra P. Watson, a librarian at the Bridgehampton School who finished her career in the financial department of the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton in the early 2000s, died on Nov. 2 of heart failure at the Davis Community Health Care Center in Wilmington, N.C.

Serena Vegessi Schick died at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital of complications related to Covid-19 on Nov. 24. She was 42.

Sue Bogart's entire professional career was devoted to teaching children. “She inspired students in Illinois, the state of her birth; New York, and, for the last 23 years of her career, East Orange, N.J., an experience she regarded as the most enriching of her professional life,” her family wrote.

A. Robert Towbin, an investment banker and sailor who lived in Key Largo, Fla., and New York City, died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease on Nov. 18 at home in Key Largo. A former East Hampton resident, he was 86 years old.

Bruce J. Hoek of Clearwater Beach, Springs, died on Friday after an illness. He was 73. Mr. Hoek was a Air Force veteran and a 20-year member of the Fire Department in White Plains, N.Y.

Visiting hours for Dennis Franklin Donatuti of Springs, who died on Nov. 5 at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, will be held Friday from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton.

A wake for Richard Bono will be held on Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A funeral will take place on Sunday at 11 a.m. at Cedar Lawn Cemetery here.

Kevin Francis Konzet, formerly of Springs, died of a heart attack on Nov. 25 at home in Cornelius, N.C. He was 68. The family will receive visitors on Thursday from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A funeral Mass will be said on Friday at 11 a.m. at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church here, with burial to follow at the church cemetery on Cedar Street.

Visiting hours for Chris (Mac) McErlean of Flanders, who grew up in Sag Harbor, will be Monday from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in Sag Harbor. He will be buried on Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Oakland Cemetery. Mr. McErlean died suddenly on Tuesday while at work. He was 38. An obituary will appear in a future issue of The Star.

When he was a senior in college, Edwin Collins decided he wanted to take a solo bicycle trip across the United States. He prepared by taking training rides on the East End that started and ended at his parents’ house in Montauk, and he often rode home after midnight, after his dishwashing shift at Gosman’s Dock restaurant. The journey ultimately took him from Portland, Ore., to Beacon Hill in Boston, where he pedaled up to his sister’s apartment and was greeted by cheers from his family.

A graveside service for Samuel Joffe of Water Mill was to be held on Wednesday, Nov. 24, at 2 p.m. at Temple Adas Israel’s Chevra Kodetia cemetery in Sag Harbor. Mr. Joffe, who was 97, died at home on Monday. A World War II veteran, he was well known as a baker and pastry chef in East Hampton for many years. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

Margaret Brubaker, a former East Hampton Star staff member, died on Nov. 16 at Foulkeways-at-Gwynedd in Gwynned, Pa. She was 84 and had been in declining health.

Joanna Semel Rose, a philanthropist, collector, and publisher who for decades lived in the 1905 Joseph Greenleaf Thorp-designed house at the corner of Ocean Avenue and Lily Pond Lane in East Hampton Village, died at her residence in Manhattan on Saturday. She was 90.